Web site:
Category: Machine Emulators
Platform: RISC OS
License: Freeware
Interface: CLI
Wikipedia:
First release: unknown
PC Engine Emulator – an emulator for the RISC PC machines.
The emulator should work on any RISC PC, but a StrongARM is recommended if you want a usable frame rate. If you don’t have 16 bit sound, you’ll also need to disable the sound emulation by adding the `-nosound’ switch.
By default, the emulator will pretend to be an American machine (the Turbo Grafx 16). A small number of Japanese games were written to run only on the Japanese version (the PC Engine) and for these you’ll need to run the emulator with the `-jp’ switch. If you come across a game that refuses to do anything, it may be worth trying this before giving up.
The real PC Engine runs at approximately 60 frames per second, whereas this emulator typically maintains a frame rate in the 70’s or 80’s (on a StrongARM machine). As of v0.21, the emulator now automatically caps the speed at 60fps.
The PC Engine (and this emulator) supports up to five players, but for now players 3 through to 5 have been assigned the same keys as the first player. Currently, the only way to alter the key mappings is to fiddle with the binary. Load `pcengine’ into a suitable editor (eg Zap or StrongEd) and search for the string `Joypad keys ‘. Immediately following this should be 5 sets of 8 bytes, giving the internal key codes that correspond to each player’s controls. The bytes are arranged in the same order as in the table above, ie the first byte is for `D-pad left’, the second for `D-pad down’ and so on. A list of internal keys codes can be found on page 1-156 of the RISC OS 3 PRMs, or in the source code for my Macros program, available at www.plasma.demon.co.uk/macros/
By convention, pressing RUN and SELECT together will reset the game, but this may not be supported by every game you try.
This program can be freely distributed, so long as the author’s name is not removed from any of the files. The program comes with no guarantee, implied or stated, and no responsibility can be accepted by the author for any kind of loss.
The last version of PC Engine emulator is 0.21 released July 24, 1998.
